what if emperor Justinian did not die from the plauge

[lawandorder82]

What if he did not die would he have reunited west and east roman empire.

[SorelusImperion]

Easy qestion easy answer: No. He was but one man and his death had no serious enough consequences by it self. The Invasions and wars that followed had a far more profound effect as they tied up Roman resources and partially rolled back the borders. The final death sentence of Justinians however wasthe murder of Maurikios which threw the Empire into a civil war and a conflict with Sassanid Persia all at once which as almost immeadiatly followed up by the Arab invasions leaving the Empire no breathing space to recover.

[Dodge]

Justinian didn't die of the plague. He was struck by it but lived. He lived well into his 80's.

Nevertheless, the plague killed his Empire - to the point where it could not defend itself effectively in future invasions.

[Ecthelion]

Also you should keep in mind that there was not much of the West to reunite. Archaeological evidence shows that the depredations of the 5th and 6th centuries on the formerly rich provinces of the Western Empire were never made good, not even after their temporary restoration to Roman rule under Justinian.

Even the northern reaches of the Balkan, south of the lower Danube were never substantially rebuilt after the invasion of Attila in the 440s.

Justinian's recovered the West only in the political and military sense. He was unable to sustain the conquests because the economic and social infrastructure that were need to sustain the provinces had long been destroyed, with the exception of Carthage where the Vandals kept the Roman tradition alive until they were taken down by Belisarius.

[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]

Actually Italy and North Africa recovered a lot under the stabilizing rule of the Germanic kingdoms. North Africa became almost as prosperous as under the Tetrachy, one of the most prosperous decades within the history of the empire. Italy, as we can see at Cassiodor found a got balance between Italians and Goths which lead to a major recovery. However, everything was finaly destroyed, by the accident that some people misinterpret in to a larger plan to reconquer the west. As all latest publications claim (Leppin etc.) it was never intended to conquer Africa, the goal was to enforce a a change of rulership, but due the civil war in the vandal realm they could beat the relatively small Vandal Army when they were divided with superior numbers. Than they thought the same could been possible in Italy but they were terribly wrong and what followed were decades of war where both sides had not enough manpower to gain a real victory. Eventually Justinian had the luck, that Totila died in battle and the recovering Goth realm collapsed. That there was not enough manpower and economical power to keep Italy was clear from the beginning but was proven much later by the invading Lombards. By the way there was a reason Justinian had no funds to finance real campaigns, he had to pay enormous sums to keep the Sassanians to start another war he would have probably never won.